What Happened To Diane? Was That Josie? Annie Blackburn & More: The Waiting Room

Welcome back to “The Waiting Room” where we will once again be taking a look at the residents in the town of Twin Peaks as well as following our favorite “J. Edgars” and Mr C himself, Doppel-Coop. Part 7 featured all of these storylines pretty heavily, so we have a lot to talk about this week. If you are looking for a traditional recap, please be on the lookout for Justin’s weekly recap that comes out on Tuesdays. Let’s start this week with the FBI and specifically, Diane.

The plan to recruit Diane was not as simple as Gordon Cole hoped for, prompting Cole and Albert to make a second attempt, this time at Diane’s home. Armed with plenty of “F-Bombs”, Diane’s colorful language and non-receptive attitude towards not only helping her former employers but also in seeing the man they questioned whether or not was the real Agent Cooper was telling. What happened to make Diane so angry? She did finally agree to join Gordon, Albert and Tammy on a plane ride to visit the incarcerated Mr C. The plane ride featured a most interesting discussion about Tammy’s findings with the fingerprints and high praise from Gordon towards Tammy. Her stock is definitely rising in Cole’s eyes.

Once they arrived at the prison, Diane was a visible ball of nerves, despite trying to portray those nerves as anger. Cole reassured her that she was in control, and this could end whenever she wanted it to. Diane’s interaction with Mr C was brief. She asked him if he remembered the last time they saw each other, which he did. He told her it was at her apartment and that he would never forget it. She said she wouldn’t either and that was enough for her. She left the room and fled outside to a small bottle of booze Albert had previously given her and eventually into the arms of Gordon. When he asked if there was anything he should know, she said they would talk later.

There have been two theories floating around since last night. The first was that a relationship between Cooper and Diane had ended terribly. The second, the one that makes considerably more sense to me given the way Diane reacted and behaved in all of her scenes was that there was physical and most likely sexual assault committed by Mr C towards her. The anger. The fear. The drinking to numb her feelings. The way she collapsed onto Gordon, in tears and proclaimed that something wasn’t right with his heart and that couldn’t be the Dale Cooper she knew. There is undeniable pain there, much deeper than the pain of a breakup from 25 years ago. This is a woman deeply wounded who has no sense of peace from the situation that hurt her. This is a woman who seeks escapism and who wants nothing to do with the people who were in her life at the time that pain was inflicted upon her. To chalk that up to a bad breakup is simply undermining the masterful acting Laura Dern displayed and the quality of writing we are accustomed to from Lynch and Frost. It also does not take into account what we know about Bob, who we know has been with Mr C during some of his reign of terror and Bob’s history of both physical and sexual abuse towards women. Whether or not this is elaborated on anymore or not, I don’t know. Perhaps they wanted us to read in between the lines. The message was loud and clear to me: Mr C visited Diane in her home and assaulted her, taking advantage of the face he shared with Agent Cooper and violating the relationship she shared with him previously.

That would not be the last we saw of Mr C in Part 7. A request was made to see the Warden and a demand was made: Mr C would divulge the information he knew on the Warden—information involving the apparently deceased Mr Strawberry, a man named Joe McClusky whose name struck fear in the heart of the Warden and a threat of people who also knew this information retaliating if anything happened to Mr C. That is unless the Warden provided Mr C with an easy escape, complete with a car, a phone, a gun and his old friend Ray. By the end of Part 7, Mr C and Ray were exiting the prison. The race is on now. Can the FBI track him down before his reign of terror gets much worse? Will there be a showdown between Mr C and “Dougie”? Only time will tell…

Moving over to Twin Peaks, the brothers Horne once again graced our screens. In the opening scene, Jerry called Ben, seemingly high out of his mind speaking of a lost car and becoming slightly concerned when Ben repeated what Jerry had just said. The obvious conclusion to draw was that this was a case of Jerry enjoying his product a bit too much but was there more to this? Perhaps I’m paranoid (and I’m not even stoned), but I think there’s more than what meets the eye here. Has Jerry become aware of some of the abnormalities in Twin Peaks?

Speaking of Ben, he had another scene later in the show with his secretary Beverly where they in quite a flirtatious manner attempted to track down where a peculiar humming noise was coming from in his office. In slow, lingering shots that gave off a creepy vibe, Lynch went up and down the walls and halls of the Great Northern, accenting the wood. The key from Agent Cooper’s room that “2 Rides Jade” had dropped off in the mail had shown up on Ben’s desk, promoting Ben to reflect on Cooper being shot in that room and on Laura Palmer herself. When Beverly asked who Laura Palmer was, 90% of the viewing audience asked themselves exactly how long she had been living in that town. Eventually, Ben and Beverly gave up on trying to track down the humming noise, but Lynch gave us another shot of the wooden walls, jogging all of our memories as to a certain former foe of Ben’s who was last seen inside a door handle inside the Great Northern. Is Josie haunting Ben? Was this a one-time nostalgic reference (there was more nostalgia in Part 7 than previously before) or could this play out further?

We followed Beverly home after her long day of ghost hunting at work with her boss and met her husband, who used a wheelchair, Tom, complete with his oxygen mask. There was a bit of dialogue between the two designed to establish their relationship, and it left me (and others) with a question: Is this more world building so to speak, giving us insight into Beverly and her thoughts and actions or is she being primed for a larger role? I personally hope it’s the latter as I really enjoyed her chemistry with Ben and he’s also someone I want to see more of onscreen.

We had a classically long and awkward David Lynch directed scene of a man sweeping the floors at the Roadhouse. I couldn’t help but laugh to myself that if any other director was responsible for this scene, I would be expecting some kind of jump scare or twist. Not with Lynch though. Part of me expected that to be the final scene to be honest. Instead, we got to see Jean Michael Renault (aka Renault brother #437) behind the bar having a phone call about two 15 year old straight A prostitutes. This was another scene that made me wonder if it was more world building as if it to say nothing’s changed at the Roadhouse all these years later or if there’s a storyline payoff down the road.

Deputy Andy briefly questioned a man who owned the truck Richard used in his hit and run that killed a child last week. The man was terrified and asked Andy if they could talk elsewhere. They agreed on a time and place (4:30, there it is again) and when they later showed Andy at said meeting spot, the man never showed. Was the man afraid of Richard? Or more likely, was he afraid of someone like Red?

Hawk wasted no time in showing the pages he found in the bathroom door to Sheriff Frank and the popular fan theory that they were indeed the pages Laura Palmer wrote following her visit from Annie in Fire Walk With Me was confirmed. Hawk gave Frank (and the audience) a history course on Annie and how she entered the lodge with Cooper. It was really nice to hear Annie mentioned after all the speculation following “The Secret History of Twin Peaks” that she had been removed from the story due to her lack of mentions. Sheriff Frank after getting the lowdown from Hawk Skyped Dr Hayward, in a really emotional scene and knowing that Warren Frost, father of Mark passed a few months ago likely only filmed that one scene, how perfect was it that it aired on Father’s Day? Doc Hayward asked about Harry, whose condition is worsening we learned earlier and then proceeded to tell Frank about the last time he saw the man he believed to be Agent Cooper. Cooper, or as we the audience know, Mr C was last seen standing outside of the ICU, believed by Doc Hayward to have been checking on Audrey Horne who was in a coma following the bank explosion. Mr C abruptly left after that, not to be seen again.

Prior to Part 7, there had been rumors that perhaps Audrey Horne had been impregnated by Mr C, with Audrey thinking that it was her beloved Cooper and that the child was none other than Richard Horne. Those theories took a turn for the darker last night with the news that Mr C had been hanging outside Audrey’s room in the ICU. While there is firm evidence to believe that Mr C sexually assaulted Diane, we are left to speculate if he took advantage of Audrey while in a coma, resulting in Richard Horne. We have no proof to go on here except what Doc said and what we know about Bob who has been with Mr C. If these assumptions are correct and Mr C did rape these women, it takes us back to the feelings we as an audience had when we learned that Bob/Leland had been molesting Laura from the time that she was a child up until her death and would in some senses be bringing the show full circle. The evil that Agent Cooper once aimed to protect the people of Twin Peaks is back, inflicting similar pain only now he wears Cooper’s face. That’s a lot to take in.

The show ended with a scene at the Double R that seemed like any other busy night at the popular local establishment. Taking a closer look though, the entire crowd changes after the man pops in the front door. How? Why? What the hell is happening in Twin Peaks? Does this have anything to do with Jerry Horne in the woods at the beginning of the episode? Is there a Lodge influence happening in the world that is allowing these ripples of time? Have you read John Bernardy’s excellent theory on this (https://25yearslatersite.com/2017/05/12/time-moves-strangely-or-metaphysical-geologic-events-in-twin-peaks/)? Until next time, my friends…

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Andrew is the Founder / Editor in Chief of 25YL. He’s engaged with 2 sons, a staunch defender of the series finales for both Lost & The Sopranos and watched Twin Peaks at the age of 5 during its original run, which explains a lot about his personality.